30 2018 | TECH attending along with our team. I had no idea of what Bosti-Set™ was, or, what it could do. But in retrospect, granting Adam time to showcase his new product proved to be one of the best decisions we’ve made in a long time!” Abell demonstrated how projects calling for gauged porcelain panels could be installed in roughly half the time, even with a smaller crew. He showed how Bosti- Set immediately grabbed porcelain tile panels in a single coat, did not allow any sag, yet made it possible for these panels to be repositionable for at least 30 minutes. “As a business owner, I’m always looking for efficiencies that are timesaving and ultimately, cost saving,” added Fulton. “So ultimately, we decided to work with this newer product. “We had a lot to learn,” Fulton con- tinued, “as the panels basically had to be picked up using suction cups with aluminum spines, not unlike the way glass panels are installed. A single layer of adhesive is troweled only onto the back of the panel, cutting the square footage necessary to trowel in half. This also cuts down on weight and deadline stress on our installers.” Fulton went on to state that he was so captivated by this project that he actually put on his accountant’s hat and followed every single step to measure the overall savings. “There is no mixing needed with this system,” he mentioned. “It’s just open and go. Other systems require a 50 lb. bag of thinset per panel. This project had 70 panels to install, and I estimated that without mixing, we could roughly save 30 minutes per panel on the installation alone, not to mention the mixing time and chas- ing water that was completely elimi- nated. Ultimately, for this 2,500 sq. ft. project, even though Bosti-Set is a bit more costly than other products, we may have saved close to $5,000 just by using it. And, that number is very conservative!” Fulton beamed. He added that the project worked out so well, “Fulton Tile & Stone has begun to use Bosti-Set on a regular basis for other proj- ects we have in the queue, including phase two at the USI facility.” Working with GPTP Gauged porcelain tile panels have certainly become the rage. According to Martin Howard, Executive Vice President of David Allen Company and immediate Past President of the National Tile Contractors Association, “This newer product offering has been accepted in the marketplace because, in particular, architects and design- ers see the advantages offered by a large panel format CASE STUDY (continued) Evansville, Ind.-based Fulton Tile & Stone executed the installation of Crossville Laminam GPTP, using Bosti-Set mortar from Bostik. Because there is no mixing required, Danny Fulton estimated that the contractor was able to save about 30 minutes per panel on installation alone.